Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “dictator who doesn’t like to be questioned on anything”. He attacked the PM after it emerged that the central govt had denied visas to 115 delegates from 70 countries who were expected to attend the ongoing Bharat Summit, jointly organised by the Telangana govt and the Samruddha Bharat Foundation.Revanth also accused Union ministers from Telangana G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay, BJP state president N Ramchander Rao and BRS working president K T Rama Rao of working against Telangana’s interests by attacking the summit. “I would not consider the two Union ministers sons of the soil,” he said.“The state govt wants to showcase Telangana’s development to foreign delegates, who are experts in various fields and some journalists and attract investments to the state,” the CM added. “The delegates would have become brand ambassadors of Telangana. But the ministry of external affairs and ministry of home affairs cancelled visas at the last minute.”The CM also took a dig at BJP and BRS opposing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s participation in Bharat Summit on Saturday. “Rahul Gandhi is Leader of the Opposition. He is the son and grandson of former PMs and belongs to a family that sacrificed lives for the country. Why is the BJP insulting him?” he asked.Rahul is expected to launch Telangana’s gig workers’ policy at the event.Revanth also said that when Rajiv Gandhi was PM, he had sent then Leader of the Opposition Atal Behari Vajpayee to foreign countries to participate in summits on behalf of the country. “Opposing Modi and BJP is not opposing India. Will Modi lose elections if one journalist questions him?” he asked.“The PM can hold BRICS and Raisina Dialogue inviting all delegates, but Telangana govt cannot conduct a summit which is part of Invest Global Summit 2026,” he said.Criticising BJP and BRS leaders, Revanth said both parties were blindly opposing the Telangana govt’s initiatives and projects such as metro rail expansion, Regional Ring Road, Musi rejuvenation project and even the Thummidihatti project.He called Kishan Reddy ‘Ghulam of Gujarat’ who wanted to divert investments in Telangana to the PM’s home state of Gujarat. Kishan and Sanjay did not even attend the Global Summit curtain raiser in Delhi last month, but Union minister Piyush Goyal did, he said. “We have till time tomorrow. If Kishan Reddy is willing to participate in Bharat Summit, I request our deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka garu to personally extend an invitation to him,” he said.On the expenditure for Bharat Summit, the CM said they had all accounts and that it did not cost Rs 1 lakh crore, like the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project did.
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